The Savages (TV story)
The Savages 'is the ninth serial of the third season of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Ian Stuart Black, directed by Christopher Barry and featured William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Peter Purves as Steven Taylor and Jackie Lane as Dodo Chaplet. Overview To be added Synopsis The TARDIS lands on a far distant planet, and the Doctor, Steven and Dodo are welcomed by the Elders of an apparently advanced society, who have been monitoring the Doctor's travels. Whilst on a tour of their capital city, Dodo discovers that their utopian way of life is dependant on the draining the life energy of a tribe of Savages, who also inhabit the planet. The Doctor decides they must do everything in their power to stop the exploitation of the Savages. However, Jano, the leader of the Elders, has other plans for the Doctor... Plot Episode 1 Feeling confident that he knows where the TARDIS has landed this time, the Doctor takes off out of the ship with to look about. Steven and Dodo step out a few minutes after him but can't seem to find him. While the Doctor looks around, a band of men watch him from the bushes; as he leaves, two figures come out of hiding and follow him, one brandishing a wooden club. While Steven calls out to the Doctor, the two savages follow him, one ready to attack him when they are forced to hide again. Steven goes off to lock for the Doctor, leaving Dodo by the TARDIS. Seeing a small rock fall beside her, Dodo spots the man from the scanner on top of the cliff and screams, calling Steven back. The savages keep watching the Doctor, accusing him of being an 'elder. However, before they can approach him, two other wearing strange headgear emerge and greet him, claiming to have been expecting a 'visitor from beyond time'. One of the men, Captain Edal, escorts the Doctor to their city to meet the Elders while the other, Exorse, stays behind to look for Steven and Dodo, who are themselves moving off to find the Doctor. As they head off however, someone throws a spear at them and they make for the TARDIS. They are forced to hide behind it as the savages throw more spears at them, when Exorse finds them and escorts them to the city with the Doctor. In the city, the Elders speak very courteously towards the Doctor, their leader, Jano, in particular. They speak of him with high admiration and offer him a position as one of the Elders. The Doctor is highly impressed by the Elders' skills in watching over him when Exorse arrives with Steven and Dodo; the Elders offer them the same courtesies. While his companions are lead away to look around, the Doctor remains with the Elders to talk with them. Outside, Edal is skeptical of the travellers, but Exorse is convinced by the Elders' words. After they move off, the savages watch them from afar. Their leader, Chal, sends other of their number, a girl named Nanina, to warn their people of an approaching hunt. Exorse senses something is amiss and brandishes his light gun. Inside the city, Steven and Dodo are escorted around by two others, Avon and Flower; Dodo is very impressed by the city and the advancement the people have made, but Steven, while equally impressed, questions how such a leap was made. In the Elders' council, the Doctor puts forth the same question about the means of the society's miraculous advancements. Meanwhile, Nanina hurries along a craggy landscape and hides from Exorse, whom she sees standing on the top of the ridge. Having spotted her, Exorse follows him into the ravine and she flees but is unable get away when she runs in the wrong direction and is frozen in place by Exorse's light gun. Chal emerges from hiding and begs to be taken in her place, but Exorse ignores him. In the council room, Jano explains to the Doctor that all the power and capabilities that their people possess are taken from natives and transferred into themselves; meanwhile, Exorse drags Nanina to the outside of the city. As their tour continues, Dodo starts to voice her skepticism over the city's nature herself and spots Exorse forces Nanina inside from a window. She reports this to Steven, but he's reluctant to believe her. Fed up of being ignored, Dodo goes to investigate on her own, while Steven is distracted by Avon and Flower. Exorse takes Nanina to a laboratory; inside Senta is performing experiments on a captured savages. He orders the first one to be removed when Exorse is called in with Nanina. While they work on her, the other savage wanders aimlessly through the corridor. Wandering into the corridor, Dodo inadvertently gets shut inside; Steven soon realises that Dodo has gone missing and goes to look for her. As Dodo passes the end of the corridor, she spots the savage Senta had been working on stumbling and charging right at her and she screams. Episode 2 The savage rushes past Dodo and opens a door at the far end of the corridor. After she helps him up, the doors shut between them and she heads off up the corridor. In the laboratory, Nanina cries desperately for the scientists to stop; Dodo hears her cries from the distance and goes to investigate; Senta orders the experiment to start and Nanina is vaporised. Steven, Avon and Flower continue looking for Dodo in the city, with Steven concerned that something has happened to her. Dodo reaches the end of the corridor and looks into the lab in the midst of the experiment. Steven rushes into the council room and tells the Doctor that Dodo is missing; while the Doctor isn't concerned, Dodo wanders into the lab and she is spotted by an assistant where they drag her into another control room. The assistants suspect Dodo is intended for transference and take her for preparation. While Avon, Flower and Edal look for Dodo, Steven finds the hallway to the laboratory, but Edal holds stops him from going down there. Dodo tries to keep the assistants away, Senta arrives and stops them. While the scientists are distracted, they get back to the experiment when Edal arrives and drags Dodo away. After they've gone, Senta has Nanina removed from the machine and taken away and tells the assistants that she is still viable to extract life energy from later. Edal takes Dodo and Steven to answer to the Elders, promising that Avon and Flower would be dealt with for their negligence later. As they leave, Steven overhears them discuss a process the savages are put through, when guards come and freeze them with their light guns. In the council room, Dodo tries to speak with the Doctor, but he is preoccupied and tells the Elders that they must return to the TARDIS to retrieve some documents regarding time travel. Now concerned about how much Dodo had seen in the lab, Jano orders Edal to follow the travellers, particularly the Doctor. In the undergrowth outside, the travellers find the figure from the corridor, confirming the Doctor's suspicions that the Elders are taking life energies from the savages and transferring it to themselves. Sending Dodo and Steven to the TARDIS to get some medication for him, Edal arrives to find the Doctor attempting to help the savage and he confronts him and takes him back to the city at gunpoint. After they've gone, Steven and Dodo return to find the Doctor missing when they give the savage the medication. Soon, Dodo spots Tor and Chal watching them from the bushes, who argue on whether or not they should kill them. As they head back to the TARDIS, the savages advance on them but the injured savage, Wylda, awakens and tells them not to kill them. He tells them that Edal came and took the Doctor back to the city when he spoke out against him and tried to defend the savage. In the council room, Jano questions the Doctor's motives; he voices his distain over the savages treatment at the behest of the Elders' advancement, considering their actions no less malevolent than the Daleks. The Doctor is disgusted by Jano's cavalier attitude to the idea of advancement and that progress is only made through exploitation. Vowing to stop him, Jano orders Edal to take the Doctor away and sends special orders to Senta The savages tell Dodo and Steven that they expect the Doctor to be given the same treatment as they do; at the same time, the Doctor is dragged before Senta and is ordered to prepare him for transference, to Senta's dismay. Jano comes in and sees that his orders are carried out; when the Doctor tries to leave, Edal freezes him with a light gun and he is placed in the transference unit. Beginning the experiment, the assistants start to worry when the readings start to reach exceedingly high levels, but Senta declares this to be their most successful experiment yet as the Doctor lay completely unmoving in the cubicle. Episode 3 Jano returns to congratulate Senta on the success of his experiment and the size of the transfer; he believes that if this level of success can be garnered from the Doctor, the same results could be attained from Dodo and Steven and he orders Edal to send out patrols to seek them out. Outside, Steven and Dodo debate with the savages about rescuing the Doctor but they point them to the caves in which they live where the guards won't follow them. Hearing of the guards seeking them, Chal warns the travellers that the Doctor will not be the same should they manage to find him. After removing the Doctor from the cubicle, Jano offers himself as the subject to inject the Doctor's extracted life force into, despite Senta's concerns. Seeing the patrol approaching, Chal offers to take them into the cave, as does Wylda, but Tor argues it, only relenting when Chel declares his authority. Inside the cave, Nanina is there awaiting their arrival. Dodo and Steven are highly impressed by the structure built inside the cave and hurry into hiding when the patrol approach. Exorse interrogates Tor and demands to know Dodo and Steven's location; after being fired on with a light gun, Tor gives away their position. Heading over to the cave, Exorse demands the travellers surrender themselves and Chal leads them down the cave's passages to evade capture. Exorse finally storms the cave and heads off to find them, with none of the savages willing to surrender them until he threatens them with the light gun and one of them talks. Meanwhile, Chal leads Dodo and Steven through the tunnels with Exorse following them after he's pointed in the right direction. The travellers and Chal hear Exorse coming and hurry further and further into the caves; Tor finally returns and hears the Exorse has followed them into the tunnels. Steven tries to coax Exorse into following them faster; he finally catches up with them when Steven uses a Dodo's mirror she received from the Elders to reflect the light gun's beam back on Exorse, freezing him. Steven forces him back to the main chamber using the light gun and the savages declare them to be gods. Inside the lab, Senta orders the assistants to take the Doctor to a place of rest before he is next needed, when Jano returns to the lab and they begin to transfer the Doctor's energy into him. While the savages bind Exorse, Tor argues that he should be killed, against Nanina and Steven's wishes, and Chal agrees to help Steven and Dodo get into the city to rescue the Doctor with the light gun. After the leave, Tor tries to attack Exorse with his club but Nanina stops him and tends to his wounds. Outside, Chal escorts Dodo and Steven through the undergrowth and make it to the city's entrance. They spot a guard hanging around the entrance and Steven breaks away and disables him with the light gun. Dodo takes his light gun before heading into the city with Steven while Chal moves the unconscious guard. In the lab, Jano is unresponsive following the operation; when Senta removes him from the cubicle, he starts exhibiting characteristics of the Doctor and is unable to recognise his own environment. While Steven and Dodo wander the corridors, Edal and Senta watch them on a scanner. Edal orders the Doctor be left in the corridor for them to find as a trap. As they drag him towards the door, Edal remotely closes the door. Steven tries to hold it open for the Doctor and Dodo to exit through, but the Doctor remains completely motionless and Steven is forced to let go. Edal then orders the corridor to be flooded with gas as protection from the light guns; as the gas thickens, Steven and Dodo desperately bang on the door to escape while the Doctor just stands completely oblivious. Episode 4 Dodo and Steven continue to be chocked by the gas, while Jano watches the events from the lab. Suddenly, the doors open and they escape, dragging the Doctor with them. While Edal and the guards ponder over how the doors opened, Jano, who was the one responsible, suddenly closes them again. Edal hurries to the lab and accuses him of it, but he denies it, still confused about his identity. Outside, Dodo and Steven drag the Doctor through the undergrowth where they are met by Chal. Steven tells him and Dodo to take the Doctor to the cave while he diverts the patrol's attention. Jano orders the patrol to split up, leaving two men to guard the TARDIS while he and Edal go to the valley of caves. Seeing them approach, Steven disables them with his light gun. Having spotted this, Edal and his men take cover and return fire with their own light guns. Edal avances on Steven's hiding place but lose track of him; while they are distracted, he jumps out of hiding and fires on them before he hurries after the others to the cave. Meanwhile, Nanina tends to Exorse while Tor complains about not being allow to kill him. He tries to rally the other savages against him, but Nanina, refusing to go against Chal, jumps to his defence with a spear. Before any more can occur, Chal returns with the Doctor and Dodo. Steven rushes through the undergrowth after them with the patrol hot on his heels. While the guards fire on him, Dodo and Chal manage to get the Doctor into the cave while Steven takes cover to defend the cave. Chal recognises Jano and has Steven ready to fire on him, but the Doctor suddenly stop him from taking the shot. Arming Tor with the light gun, Steven and Dodo tend to the Doctor, but he insists on trying to help the savages by destroying the Elders' laboratory and intends to use Exorse to see this done. Elsewhere, Edal is sent back to the city by Jano. Steven opts watches guard outside the cave, but the Doctor deduces that he may not need to. In Senta's lab, Edal brings his suspicions about Jano to him when the Elders suddenly enter and Edal voices these same suspicions to them. The savages wait for any movement against them when they hear Jano approaching, asking to speak with the Doctor. While the savages fear him, the Doctor deduces that after getting infused with the Doctor's intellect, he was also imparted with a conscience. While the discussion occurs, Exorse breaks free of his bonds and escapes, in spite of Steven's attempts to stop him with a light gun; Nanina then suddenly takes off to reason with him. While Exorse rushes through the jungle, Nanina finds him and pleads with him to reconsider but he hurries away from her anyway. In the lab, Senta is forced to confess to Jano's operation and Edal takes command of the security should he return. Exorse returns to the city and tells Senta that he escaped from the cave but tells him that he didn't see Jano. As the savages approach the city, using light guns as defence, Edal orders Exorse taken away for interrogation. Jano then suddenly strides into the lab, bringing a group of savages as 'prisoners'. He orders Edal arrested for trying to overthrow him, before telling Senta that all the machinery in the laboratory be destroyed, having realised their treatment of the savages was an abhorrence. When Senta refuses to, Jano, the Doctor and the other savages start to smash everything in sight, with Tor holding Senta back from stopping them. After they've destroyed in the lab, Edal breaks in with a squad of guards and prepare to kill the Doctor and Jano, before he is executed by Steven. With the technology destroyed, the Doctor tells Jano that a peace can now exist between the Elders and savages, and he requests that the Doctor stay behind to mediate the preceding peace. The Doctor refuses to do this when Chal and the other savages elect Steven to be the one to do this. Despite his reluctance to leave the Doctor and lack of faith that he would be able to do it, Steven agrees to stay and help them. After the savages and Jano leave, Dodo bids a tearful farewell to Steven with a hug and Steven thanks the Doctor for all of his time in the TARDIS before they bid each other a fond goodbye. After he leaves, the Doctor and Dodo head back to the TARDIS and it dematerialises with one less crew member aboard. Cast * Dr. Who - William Hartnell * Steven Taylor - Peter Purves * Dodo Chaplet - Jackie Lane * Chal - Ewen Solon * Tor - Patrick Godfrey * Captain Edal - Peter Thomas * Exorse - Geoffrey Frederick * Jano - Frederick Jaeger * Avon - Robert Sidaway * Flower - Kay Patrick * Nanina - Clare Jenkins * Senta - Norman Henry * Wylda - Edward Caddick * First Assistant - Andrew Lodge * Second Assistant - Christopher Denham * Third Assistant - Tony Holland * Savage - John Dillon * Guard - Tim Goodman Crew * Assistant Floor Manager - Gareth Gwenlan * Costumes - Daphne Dare * Designer - Stuart Walker * Incidental Music - Raymond Jones * Make-Up - Sonia Markham * Producer - Innes Lloyd * Production Assistant - Norman Stewart * Script Editor - Gerry Davis * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson * Studio Lighting - Graham Sothcott * Studio Sound - Norman Greaves * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire * Title Music - Ron Grainer References To be added Story notes To be added Broadcast & Ratings Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The Savages'' page on '''Doctor Who Website